Singapore — The Reform Party has demanded that People’s Action Party candidate Sim Ann stop using its campaign slogan “Build Back Better, Fairer”, which she reportedly used in her Constituency Political Broadcast on Saturday (July 4).
RP Secretary-General Kenneth Jeyaretnam took to Facebook on Saturday night to share an official party statement on Ms Sim’s use of the slogan. The RP claimed that it launched the slogan on June 26 in its Election Manifesto.
4 July 2020
For Immediate Release
Reform Party Demands That Ms Sim Ann Stop Using Our Campaign Slogan
On 2 July…
Posted by Kenneth Jeyaretnam on Saturday, July 4, 2020
According to the statement, Ms Sim, who is standing for re-election and contesting in Holland-Bukit Timah GRC, used the catchphrase, “Build Back Better” as her post-Covid commitment to the people.
The statement criticised Ms Sim for “shamelessly plagiarising” the RP’s slogan. Mr Jeyaretnam also used the incident to jab at the PAP, saying the party “has no ideas. Instead they are so lazy that they think they can get away with pinjaming our ideas and passing them off as their own”. (Pinjam is Malay for “borrow”).
With this, the opposition party has called upon Ms Sim to drop her use of the slogan, as it sees it as a violation of copyright. “Singaporeans should not be fooled,” the statement read. “If they re-elect the PAP the only certainty is that they will build back the same but worse. In fact that is their real campaign slogan.”
Ms Sim is a member of the PAP team, also comprising Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Mr Christopher De Souza and Mr Edward Chia, that is contesting in Holland-Bukit Timah GRC. It is facing off against a Singapore Democratic Party team of Mr Tan Jee Say, Mr Alfred Tan, Mr James Gomez and Ms Min Cheong. /TISG